In addition to this, they guide the main character’s
thinking.
It is well known that some of Miyazaki’s films deal with the
struggle between the world of humans and the world of nature. Pollution or the
destruction of nature are often on display and with Princess Mononoke it is the same. When reaching the forest, the
main character Ashitaka is confronted with the forest’s impending destruction
in favour of an iron ore mine.
As it also is in Spirited
away (2001) and Castle in the Sky
(1986) Miyazaki takes ordinary settings and interweaves fantasy elements, so
that they become part of the character’s reality. It is therefore no surprise
that, when Ashitaka is confronted with a boar god turned demon named Nago, he
does not panic but chooses to cross the beast’s path in order to save his home
town from destruction.
Miyazaki therefore does not create a pure diegetic fantasy
world, but instead enlarges our non-diegetic understanding of our world.
As a result, Miyazaki can use supernatural elements and
detach them from their own realm of reality, so that they can be used more as
symbols on a meta-level than as fully included elements of the film’s narrative
structure.
This means that Miyazaki recalls Jacques Lacan’s theory of
the objet petit a and combines it with the concept of Hitchcock’s MacGuffin.
While using different gods and goddesses as cornerstones, connecting the
different chapters, they indirectly also reveal ideas and thoughts to Ashitaka,
or, to be fair, Ashitaka’s sub conscience.
In the beginning of the film the sudden appearance of the rampaging
Nago makes Ashitaka question and evaluate his position against the welfare of
his hometown. He crosses the beast’s path and begs it to stop and spare the
town.
When realising that the demon is not changing, Ashitaka
attempts to kill it and succeeds. The demonic curse then attacks and infects the
young man.
From this point onwards it is of no importance, how Ashitaka
got infected with the curse.
The supernatural entity (objet) served its purpose and got
almost immediately replaced by the next entity, the forest spirit, which
Ashitaka is forced to meet in order to get cured.
On his journey to the forest in the west, Ashitaka meets
other gods and also a large number of humans. Since all of the different
chapters of the journey are strongly connected with the forest and/or the
forest spirit, they affect Ashitaka and make him question the goal of his
journey. What they nevertheless do not do is to actively influence or manipulate
the young man’s quest itself. It doesn’t matter if they appear or not. Ashitaka
is always on the way to the spirit. He never loses the way. As the symbols they
are, they influence the motivation.
The opening fight against Nago destroys Ashitaka’s place in
the world. Cursed by the demon’s corruption he is doomed to death, if he does
not get help. Nevertheless, as the wise woman, who sends him off to the forest
in the west, says, he must not come back, no matter the outcome of the journey.
So, independent of getting the cure, Ashitaka, who is introduced as being a
prince, is homeless from now on, a fall that would at least take a 9 out of 10
on Shakespeare scale of royal tragedies. Since he is also about to die, we could
easily make it a 9.5, I suppose.
Let us for a moment pretend that Ashitaka reaches the forest
and meets with the forest spirit without the war narrative and without Lady
Eboshi and everything. Let us imagine that the spirit cures him. In this case
Ashitaka would be alive and healthy, but all alone. So, being alive would be of
no value, if it was not for a purpose, working as a guideline in the
background.
And this is, where the supernatural entities kick in. They do
influence Ashitaka’s sub conscience. They affect his super-ego that is looking
for something of value. The id wants to survive. Id makes Ashitaka’s ego move.
It is the super-ego that is trying to find a reason for survival.
The little tree spirits catch the super-ego’s focus for the
forest.
The wolf goddess Moro guides the super-ego’s focus. With
Moro Ashitaka meets San, a girl, who once had been adopted by Moro. Here a
possible connection between humans and nature is indicated
Okkoto, yet another boar god, sensitises Ashitaka’s
super-ego in terms of the importance of the forest and connection to the reason
of one’s own existence.
In between Ashitaka gets a glance at the forest spirit itself
and its divine appearance that communicates the importance of its own
existence, being in charge of giving and taking life.
All of these impressions work on the super-ego. Like pieces
of a jigsaw the super-ego slowly can make up a new purpose.
When giving San the crystal dagger that Ashitaka’s sister
gave her leaving brother in the beginning of the film, so that he shall not forget
her, it shows the process of communication between the super-ego, beginning to
overwhelm the id, and the ego, expressing a new idea for a purpose.
It is in the grand finale, when everything seems to be lost
(the forest spirit been decapitated, the forest dying, no cure), when the ego
completely overcomes the basic instincts of the id and is now driven by the
super-ego and the will to save the forest.
Ashitaka and San give back the decapitated head to its owner
and together they save the forest. At this moment Ashitaka also gets cured.
Unfortunately Ashitaka and San were moments too late to save not just the
forest but also the forest spirit, but as it is with MacGuffins, the spirit has
served its purpose. Like with all the other gods before it, there is no reason
for it to remain in the narrative, since Ashitaka has finally found a new home
and a new reason to keep on living.
He will stay in the town next to forest and will visit San
in the forest now and then.
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